of the "Trilby" referred to by Musset?

RIDGEFIELD, CONN., 19 Nov., 1894.

ROSWELL BACON.

* * * * *

In answer to the request of your correspondent in _The Critic_ of Nov.
17, I find the tale of "Trilby" in my copy of the "Contes de Charles
Nodier, illustres par Tony Johannot." "Trilby" is the story of a
household fairy of Scotland (a "Lutin familier de la Chaumiere"). It is
fantastic and touching, but it has nothing in common with du Maurier's
"Trilby."

LEESBURGH, VIRGINIA, 20 Nov., 1894.

I. L. P.

* * * * *

From the recent contributions to "Trilbyana" in your columns, it would
appear as if the name of Trilby (originally Scotch or Irish?) were not
uncommon in the writings of French authors. Charles Nodier, in his
_conte_, says that M. de Latouche--a contemporary--wrote on the same
subject, "ou cette charmante tradition etait racontee en vers
enchanteurs"--which gives one to suppose that "Trilby" was the name of
his enchantress; though, perhaps, he refers to the old story of "Le
Diable Amoureux." I find, moreover, that Balzac takes the name for a
type in his "Histoire des Treize: Ferragus: Vol. I. Scenes de la Vie
Parisienne" (page 48 of edition of 1843):--"Pour developper cette
histoire dans toute la verite de ses details, pour en suivre le cours
dans toutes ses sinuosites, il faut ici divulguer quelques secrets de
l'amour, se glisser sous les lambris d'une chambre a coucher, non pas
effrontement, mais a la maniere de Trilby [the opposite to du Maurier's
Trilby], n'effaroucher ni Dougal, ni Jeannie, n'effaroucher personne,"
etc.

TUXEDO PARK, 26 Nov., 1894.

E. L. B.

* * * * *

(_Boston Evening Transcript, 1 Dec. 1894._)

"The Listener was asked the other day where du Maurier got the name of
Trilby--a sweet and pleasant word, neither English nor French, which
seemed to suit so perfectly the adorable young person of his creation.
He was able to answer, more by accident certainly than as the result of
erudition, that the name was not invented by du Maurier but belongs to
the French classics--possibly to Scottish folk-lore. In the year 1822
there was first published in Paris a _nouvelle_, by Charles Nodier,
afterward a member of the French Academy, entitled, "Trilby, or the Fay
of Argyle"; it was a sort of fairy-story, in which a fay is in love with
a mortal woman, and the woman is very far from being indif